Images of Islam 1453–1600: Turks in Germany and Central Europe by Charlotte Colding Smith (review)

In this study of European perceptions of the Islamic Turk and Ottoman Empire in the German speaking regions of the Holy Roman Empire, Charlotte Colding Smith undertakes an ambitious project to examine a wide selection of European texts and related visuals concerning the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants produced between the fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries for a German speaking audience. These include incunabula works, broadsheets, news pamphlets, encyclopaedic works, and costume books. By adopting a Warburgian approach to the study of works in print, the author has visually analysed and situated the texts and visuals within their contemporary historical and cultural milieu.

Smith has organised the book into six themed chapters with the relative placement of eighty images. The first chapter examines prints produced for audiences in the German territories of the Holy Roman Empire from the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople to the beginning of direct conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire in Europe during the early sixteenth century. Through a comparison of fifteenth-century incunabula and early sixteenth-century prints with those found in medieval illuminated manuscript text and illustration, Smith demonstrates that European perceptions of the Islamic Turks at this time were inherited, and informed by earlier images and ideas shaped by crusader wars with the Saracens, Moors, and other Islamic groups. Furthermore, classically inspired humanist and theological writings, as well as Italian influences, derived from the latter’s involvement in trade and conflict with the Ottomans, and shaped northern perceptions of the expanding Islamic Empire.

In Chapter 2, the author claims European perceptions of the Islamic Turks changed with direct exposure to the Ottoman armies, the associated atrocities of war, and the imminent threat posed to the German territories and Christianity following the Hungarian defeat at Mohacs (1526) and the siege of Vienna (1529). Earlier generic images were replaced by detailed depictions of Ottoman costume and military accoutrements. The author believes the diversity of texts and visuals reflects both the fear and respect of the German people for their powerful adversary.

Chapter 3 explores the incorporation of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic Turks into theological and biblical texts by linking apocalyptic prophecies with contemporary events, which proved a useful tool of propaganda for both Reformation and Counter-Reformation arguments.

Chapter 4 examines texts and visuals produced by travellers associated with European embassies to the Porte to reveal the way European perceptions altered during the sixteenth century when the relationship between the powers shifted from one of conflict to diplomacy. These printed works by northern European diplomats and artists were reproduced for a European audience increasingly fascinated with the wealth and power of the Ottoman court and the divergent customs, religion, and inhabitants of the Islamic Near east. The theme of fascination and the desire to gain knowledge and understanding of the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants continues in the final chapters as European text and imagery is explored in popular printed costume books and encyclopaedic images as seen in genealogies, histories, and cosmographies.

Smith’s findings of diversity in European perceptions relative to the contemporary historical period underpin those of James G. Harper (The Turk and Islam in the Western Eye, 1450–1750, Ashgate, 2011) who claims European perceptions of the Turk and Islam in the early modern period were shaped by a combination of factors including time, geographical proximity to the Ottoman Empire, and the ‘worldliness’ of the maker. Smith believes the vicissitude in perceptions, albeit with concurrent enduring themes, reflects cultural history and the evolving relationship between the powers that transitioned from one of military conflict to diplomacy during the course of the period under examination. The work makes an important contribution to understanding European interactions with and perceptions of the Ottoman Empire by highlighting local experiences in the German...